Washington:
The USS George HW Bush — America’s super-powerful Nimitz-class supercarrier– is taking a long detour around Africa to avoid Houthi-threatened Red Sea waters amid a tense US naval build-up near the Hormuz Strait. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was spotted off the coast of Namibia earlier this week as it prepared to sail around the southern tip of Africa, where it will cross from the Atlantic into the Indian Ocean at the Cape of Good Hope.
The aircraft carrier is believed to be en route to the Middle East, where it will join the USS Abraham Lincoln, operating in the region since February. The normal route from the US Navy’s East Coast carriers to the Middle East is through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea, then through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea.
The Pentagon has not said anything about why Bushwhich departed Naval Station Norfolk in late March with roughly 5,000 sailors and aviators from Carrier Air Wing Seven, is taking the long way. But the answer seems like a silent acknowledgement by the US that even its most powerful naval formation is no longer safe in the Red Sea, largely controlled by Iran-backed Houthis.
“The path around Africa allows the carrier and its escorts to avoid transiting the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb, which were both hubs of activity for the Houthis in their drone and missile attacks on US and commercial shipping in 2024 and 2025,” according to a USNI News report.
The Houthi Threat in the Iran War
While much of the world’s attention has been focused on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow transit connecting the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman under Iran’s chokehold, Tehran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen waded into the war by threatening to choke the Bab el-Mandeb, which is Arabic for “Gate of Tears”, due to its tricky navigation conditions.
The heavily armed, Iran-backed militia claiming to represent a Shia minority has warned the US and Israel that their ‘fingers are on the trigger’. The group controls parts of Yemen’s western coastline, including the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, and occupies mountain strongholds overlooking that body of water and has targeted commercial vessels in the Red Sea, disrupting flows through the Bab el-Mandeb.
The strait, just 32 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, is a vital oil route. It is divided into two channels– Western Dact-el-Mayun, being approximately 16 miles wide and much shallower Eastern Alexander’s Strait, or Bab Iskender, which is only two miles wide.
Dact-el-Mayun is used for large international shipping vessels and tankers and is almost always employed by any US Navy warship.
How Much Longer Is US Carrier’s Detour?
If the Bush took the traditional route from Norfolk via the Red Sea to the Arabian Sea, the distance would have been between 8,000 and 9,000 nautical miles. But with the current detour from African waters, it will increase between 13,000 and 15,000 nautical miles, which is approximately 1.5 times longer a route.
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